The Servant's Heart Read Online Free PDF Page B

recognized as Iolyn and the other was the prince's large friend, Dorn.
    The prince stood out in the rain.
    "You are something else. You nearly escaped my best men. You had this--" he held up my book, "on your person.
    " The Virtue of War -- an interesting read. But this is not The Virtue of War . This is a book of family magic. The Ilore family if I'm not mistaken." He strode forward, gripped my shirt tightly, and jerked, ripping it down the front. The brand on my right pectoral -- the letter T -- was pale against my skin. "The traitor's brand."
    I closed my eyes and turned my head away. I'd received the brand when my family had been butchered -- a son and a daughter spared to prove his majesty's magnanimous nature. But branded, so that everyone would know. I'd been three but I still had nightmares about it. I had nightmares about many things.
    "My name is Terence d' Ilore, last Duke of Ilore."
    "Let him go."
    Iolyn and the prince's friend dropped me to the ground. I felt cold all over. What would he do?
    The prince knelt down in front of me and forced me to look at him. "Ilore betrayed their king because he was a tyrant. Their noble blood runs through your veins, why would you hide that? They are heroes to many people. The common folk of Veneser for one. What did you do in Veneser that was so terrible you had to hide everything about yourself?"
    Noble blood? Heroes? "I've spent my life being told I was bad blood. That I would betray my friends. I was attacked. I killed them all. They were coming for me because Ismuggled the son of Rothwell out of the palace.
    " I hid him. I let the peace happen. I let our king die. They came out of the dark at me, my former friends and her. The bitch from Rothwell. I had no choice but to fight and when the prince found me, he told me to run. He arranged for me to come here." I looked Prince Jasper in the eye. "I didn't know what to do. I was there, covered in their blood. It was run or die. If the rest of Veneser discovered what I'd done, it would only confirm their suspicions. That I was bad blood. That I should I have been killed with the rest of my family. I should have been. I will only bring trouble-- I--"
    The prince slapped me. "Your family stood up to a tyrant and paid in blood. Wish that you are like them. Perhaps they are traitors to the old nobles of Veneser, but they are heroes in Jorian and Rothwell and Jadeen. You have no reason to be ashamed of who you are. You defended yourself. You saved your kingdom from generations of bloodshed.
    "You are not bad blood." He pushed the damp hair out of my face with a smile. "I've seen portraits of your mother, you look just like her. White hair and dark eyes, pale skin. I'm sorry for trying to provoke you, Terence, but I was hoping you would tell me who you were without my having to force it out of you." He sighed. "You don't have to hide anymore. You don't have to run."
    The hawk cried, circling overhead.
    The prince smiled. "You can have a home here. You can serve Jorian."
    I didn't know what to say. "I--"
    The prince shook his head, raising a hand to forestall my answer. "You don't have to answer now, let's go back inside and get you cleaned up, all right?"
    I could only nod numbly and let Iolyn help me up and lead me back inside.
     
    ***
     
    Iolyn brought me to the nobles' baths. I'd only been in these baths a couple times, and never to use them. There was a large communal bath set into the stone floor; it was an expanded hot spring the castle had been built around. There was one similar used for the servants, just smaller.
    "I hope the accommodations are to your liking, your grace," Iolyn said.
    "Very funny." I stripped off my muddy clothes and dropped them into a nearby wicker basket. "You should know, one has to take claim to a title before the use of honorifics is allowed." I scrubbed the mud off at one of the soap stone sinks before I stepped into the pool and settled. I wanted to soak. I never had the time to soak.
    "You have